A Walk in the Shadows

DuBois' After Action Report - Hendon

Operation: Tempest

My attempts to reason with the Lucy creature went unanswered. Perhaps we erred in our conclusion that Dracula himself is in direct and constant communication with his “turned” minions. Either that, or she is independent of Dracula’s control, and the telluric current communication is limited to just that. This does not explain the alleged control vampires are supposed to exert over those they infect with their bacteria, if we are to believe the words of Bram Stoker as truth. Either way, she is currently not interested in working with us as allies.

But I digress. We were currently huddled in the old crypt of Lucy Westerna, having just roused her from her undead sleep in the hopes of getting her to speak with us under the threat of our assembled weaponry. Unfortunately, this was another one of Quinn’s poorly crafted plans, and she had used her mental abilities to turn Quinn against us while she made her escape from the tomb.

After patching up Quinn as best as I could in the dark, we set out to make our way from the cemetery. Lucy’s laughter let us know that she was still lurking nearby, and Lee and I hung close to Quinn as we made our way to the nearest exit. And, as expected, the vampire Lucy immediately rushed us.

Lee was quick with some UV flares, which made her balk at approaching us further. I took the opportunity to try to talk some sense into her. I assured her that we had the same intentions as her master, and that we intended to put an end to Edom once and for all. I explained we had previously discovered the Edom facility at the Ring manor, and that we were on our way to destroy the house and shut down Edom’s core.

Our talk with Lucy broke down, and we allowed her to escape back into her tomb. Quinn left a calling card on a nearby tombstone in case Lucy wanted to chat later? (Sometimes I am positive that Quinn is showing signs of advanced Alzheimer’s disease, although his lucid periods are significantly longer than the median recorded in the literature.)

Heading out of St. Mary’s Cemetery, we decided that a public place would be our best bet for a breather. We found a quaint little shop, called the Waffle House, nearby and over coffee and waffles discussed our next move.

The Waffle House:

First, we reviewed what we knew at this point concerning Dracula, Edom, and any possible connections to the IMF. We knew that from the moment we encountered Nikolai Limrovich in Dubai that we had been targeted by Edom, but still did not understand why. Dracula, although apparently in league with Edom over the centuries, also was being undermined by their efforts to create their own breed of vampire, based on the evidence we had been collecting over the past few months. He clearly had no love for them, and wanted them removed as much as they wanted us gone from the play. What was Dracula’s ultimate motive? We were unsure, but we both were opposed to Edom at this point. The enemy of my enemy?

Regardless, we were certain as possible that Jason Shaw, and the “real” IMF were not involved in the conspiracy of Edom, and could be trusted. Mostly.

The ultimate question that we wanted answered was why exactly was Edom trying to kill us. After the events of the past few months – the destruction of their oil rig, the chemical plant in Germany, etc. – we know why they were still on our trail, but what led them to trying to eliminate us back in Dubai?

After further discussion, we returned to the point at hand – the destruction of Edom. Removing them from play would cut the heat from us, as well as remove the impetus to keep using Dracula as a covert asset. What Dracula’s agenda was in this instance was secondary to removing the major threat of Edom. To that end, we started planning our S&D mission to the Ring. Our previous surveillance provided us with a substantial amount of material concerning the defenses of the area, most of which appeared to be anti-vampire in nature – hawk mews, beehives, and the like. Electronic surveillance, while present, was minimal in nature, again likely reflecting the known qualities displayed by vampires.

The Ring surveillance photos:

We knew that there would likely be armed assets inside, and spent the next two days prepping for our assault. Luckily, even without agency assets on our side, we had sufficient connections to put together the arms and equipment that we required. We acquired two cars that were similar to those we had seen parked at the Ring, and set off on our night assault the next evening.

Our infiltration was successful. We avoided the few electronic hotspots and made our way into the manor proper. There were some guard patrols, but the estate seemed mostly deserted. All the better for us.

As expected, the guards, while clearly competent, were not expecting an incursion by humans. We quietly eliminated six, and were able to gain access to an underground laboratory as well as “D’s” private office, which cinched our theory that this was indeed the central HQ of Edom. Quinn used his explosive expertise to destroy the lab, and on our way out, we lucked across two rooms containing high-ranking Dukes of Edom – Hound and “D” himself – one Lord Godalming.

We efficiently neutralized the pair, and left the grounds with them in tow.